I just received my confirmation for attending your Cape Cod Institute session. I'm greatly looking forward to learning all that you and the others attending have to share.
Regarding your questions . . .
(1) What experiences have I had with large-scale change? All the experience I've had with large-scale change are those where I have facilitated the process. Not the best place to begin, perhaps, but there's nothing like learning while doing to figure out what works and what you need to do differently next time. As consultants to both large and small organizations, our consulting firm (it's just my wife Linda and myself) works hard to facilitate a process that helps our client organizations move towards their preferred destinations. Our large-scale change projects have involved mostly small organizations and state-wide associations in developing common ground around (a) what their preferred destination (vision) is and (b) what they need to do to get there. Our most interesting and challenging process to date was the pursuit of common ground on land use issues for Dane County, Wisconsin. We facilitated four half-day sessions that sought to blend the diverse and often opposing perspectives on land use into a sense of direction for county-wide action. We've also guided Future Search sessions regarding transportation safety for the State of Wisconsin and the impact of welfare reform on people with disabilities in Wisconsin.
(2) What have we learned from Future Search that caused us to develop our own model? One thing we've learned is that our clients view a three-day commitment of people's time and resources (as suggested by Weisbord and others) as an impossibility. As a result, we've been able to work out both 1 and 2 day processes that generally get the job done. The goals of the process are met--common ground on the present reality and its challenges is usually achieved and there is often a strong convergence around matters of purpose and vision. We usually are able to guide the assembled multitude (never more than 100) in identifying and prioritizing areas for action to achieve the vision. Developing a plan for each area, however, usually occurs following the session. This last piece (developing plans and mobilizing people to implement the plans), as a result, often misses the synergy and energy of the large group process . . . . and sometimes the interest in addressing issues dies out. The follow-along can also get overly bureaucratic -- lots of smaller work groups developing and sharing plans. We have developed our own typical agenda/structure for the 1-2 day conferences and would be happy to share these with you before or during the seminar.
(3) How do we define "systems thinking" and where did we first start thinking about it in our life and work. Systems thinking, from our perspective, is understanding the connections, relationships, and underlying structures in whatever organization or system we're concerned with. Systems thinking is looking for patterns and the belief structures that lead to the emergence of these patterns. I first began thinking about systems thinking before I knew what it was. In the early 1980's I served as an employee assistance program director for a large organization. After six months on the job dealing with lots of employee pain, anxiety, depression, anger, and frustration, I got frustrated with my limited role. I felt that I was working for a mobile MASH unit -- providing triage for the walking wounded without attending to the underlying organizational dysfunction that created the angry, frustrated, anxious, etc. employees. I also encountered considerable resistance from a number of my EAP professional peers who felt that taking on the "system" wasn't EAP’s role. I didn't listen then and, now that I'm on my own in my own business, I have continued to pursue the systems approach to solving both individual and organizational problems.
(4) What caused me to sign up for the session? Since our work in Future Search has been self-taught, I'm anxious to learn more about what others are doing. To discover what works. How to push a system harder to make things happen. How to get commitment and sustain it from people who participate. I'm looking for new approaches and ideas to keep the energy high and achieve the results our clients need. I also signed up for the session due to your reputation as one of the founders of the field. I know that I can benefit from the journey you've already taken.
(5) To make the session worthwhile . . . Just an opportunity to learn, to talk with you and others about what work you're doing. I'm looking for ways to get people excited about this approach to large scale change. How to sell it. How to convince people that the results are worth the resource commitment. I'm also interested in the idea of a learning community--preserving and building on the connections forged during your seminar and continuing to learn and integrate them into our practice.
I have the book on Large Group Interventions by Barrett-Koehler. It's been on the "read this next" stack of books for the last nine months. I promise to read it before the session.
I look forward to continuing our WWW-based discussion between now and the session and I look forward to meeting you in July. Until then, take care,
Sincerely, Jeff Russell, Russell Consulting, Inc.